R7-T1 is such a tempting droid. Both a Boost and a Target Lock in a single action? Sign me up. It doesn't always seem to work perfectly, though. There are times when a boost out of an enemy arc will also put them out of your arc. I've seen some decent things with it on Blue Ace, but that's not really that impressive.

Norra Wexley is a ship which loves a target lock, and frequently likes some sort of movement action. I get why folks run BB-8/PTL/Kyle, but it's one of those builds where the action economy always seemed a little fragile to me. Get to a turn when you can't or don't want to Barrel Roll, and then you can't PTL and clear stress. Getting both R2-D2 and Engine Upgrade is great, but incredibly expensive.

Could this be a chocolate-and-peanut butter moment? A classic PTL/Kyle build is 38 points with R7-T1, and seems like the action economy would be more robust to turns when you don't need to boost, compared to BB-8 barrel rolls. Meanwhile, when using an R7 boost to get rear arc on someone, you don't necessarily even need a focus, with your title providing a soft-focus. Is that PTL into a Jan Ors Evade (37 pts)? Maybe R7-T1 is right for an Expertise Norra instead of PTL. Opening up those hard turns, and still boosting into strong attacks seems nice. Tailgunner (38 pts) or C-3PO (39) seem like the right crew for an Expertise build.

Just to put out a full list (I'm not locked into to any particular ship and it's mostly filler to build around Norra... I think the formation aspects of the build could easily fall apart, but maybe that's an advantage in disguise, where you won't be locked into one block for the whole game):

Norra Wexley (38)
ARC-170 (29), R7-T1 (3), Expertise (4), Tail Gunner (2), Alliance Overhaul (0)

Lowhhrick (34)
Auzituck Gunship (28), Rage (1), Inspiring Recruit (1), Inspiring Recruit (1), Experimental Interface (3)

Jess Pava (28)
T-70 X-Wing (25), R2-D6 (1), Primed Thrusters (1), Integrated Astromech (0), Crack Shot (1)

~~

Has anyone experimented with this droid on Norra? I've always liked R7-T1 and the great action economy on paper, but haven't really found him to be as good in the actual geometry of a table.

I've run Jess/Low/Norra before, and it's definitely potent. I do think it's really hard (re: impossible) for any 40ish point Rebel ship to beat out Miranda, though. Like you already suggested, this probably isn't the right build for each ship, but it's something I'd like to see a battle report on!

R7 T1 is just too situational it could be really good if one of the restrictions was lifted. Heck, for three points I should be able to boost and target lock without limitation!

19 minutes ago, Estarriol said:

Heck, for three points I should be able to boost and target lock without limitation!

Not when you don't even have to have boost to start with. Remember that it's also a (situational) discount engine upgrade, not just improved action economy.

9 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Has anyone experimented with this droid on Norra? I've always liked R7-T1 and the great action economy on paper, but haven't really found him to be as good in the actual geometry of a table.

I can see the advantages with Norra Wexley - but she still needs an extra action to trigger her ability effectively - yes, all right, alliance overhaul can pull some weight if firing out the auxiliary arc, but at least half the time I see Norra used successfully, she's using her ability defensively, not when shooting. Besides which, if the target is behind you, you don't want to be boosting, as that generally pushes you into a longer range band, which favours someone who doesn't have a 2-dice popgun (whatever special rules may be strapped onto it).

It's situational (as noted) but cheap, and gives you a relatively-expensive-to-get capability (boost). Arteee is okay, but since you need to be in the target's arc at medium range before you get your action, it's a jouster-ey type droid to me.

I wonder if it might work okay with an X-wing ace - Luke/Wes/Jek, Intensity, R7-T1, Integrated Astromech has similar action economy to 'batwedge' (BB-8, Push The Limit, Integrated Astromech), giving you two X-wings which can move a bit without giving up their security blanket of IA.

Like mentioned above, its situational. What happens when you are up against TLTs? They fly away and plink you to death, and you cant boost into their range 1.

For 1 point you get R2D2 that works in every game, or just get Engine Upgrade to guarantee a boost when you need it.

On 9/22/2017 at 3:47 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

I can see the advantages with Norra Wexley - but she still needs an extra action to trigger her ability effectively - yes, all right, alliance overhaul can pull some weight if firing out the auxiliary arc, but at least half the time I see Norra used successfully, she's using her ability defensively, not when shooting. Besides which, if the target is behind you, you don't want to be boosting, as that generally pushes you into a longer range band, which favours someone who doesn't have a 2-dice popgun (whatever special rules may be strapped onto it).

It's situational (as noted) but cheap, and gives you a relatively-expensive-to-get capability (boost). Arteee is okay, but since you need to be in the target's arc at medium range before you get your action, it's a jouster-ey type droid to me.

Having put it on the table, I entirely agree with this. Played two games Yesterday with Norra with Expertise/Tailgunner/R7-T1, and it never really felt good. She felt too squishy without regen or Focus/TL to spend defensively, and felt a lot slower than she seemed like she'd be. She can't boost unless in the fight, so if she ever stepped out of it for the moment, it'd take a long time to get back in. Meanwhile, while the particular build opened the 2-hards, without easy access to movement actions, those don't really do that much.

I want to love R7-T1 for the obvious reasons: two actions without stress, and one of them is an expensive-to-add Boost. I'd hoped Norra could make better use of it with her creative use of Target Locks, and her additional firing arc. Didn't really work out.

Your right. R7-T1 looks great on paper but like everyone else it is situational. You may want to try this;

(38)

•Norra Wexley (38) - ARC-170
Intensity (2), Jyn Erso (2), •BB-8 (2), Alliance Overhaul (0), •Experimental Interface (3)

I flew it and it is really efficient. Just make sure you use Intensity wisely. It works similar to PTL. I usually took an evade when I used Intensity and made sure I was able to assign multiple focus tokens, relieved stress and then target locked. Early in combat I used her ability for defense. Jess and Lowhhrick have good attack dice to get through my opponents ships. M9-G8 gave Lowhhrick extra punch. The most success I had is when Jess and Lowhhrick led and Norra came in to deliver a heavy attack.

R7-T1 is Awesome on a Y-Wing with a turret. Otherwise it is garbage.

I used to fly him with Dutch Vander and an Ion Cannon turret way back when. Arc dodging Y-Wing awesomeness!

1 hour ago, AngryAlbatross said:

R7-T1 is Awesome on a Y-Wing with a turret. Otherwise it is garbage.

I used to fly him with Dutch Vander and an Ion Cannon turret way back when. Arc dodging Y-Wing awesomeness!

Sounds like a good idea for game night at FLGS. I may give this a try.

You're looking at the wrong Battle Bae for this. Shara is your R7T1 caddy. She wants to be taking a target lock regularly anyway, which gives you a boost for free as a bonus.

Give this a shot:

ARC-170: · Norra Wexley (29)
Push The Limit (3)
· R2-D2 (4)
· Ezra Bridger (3)
ARC-170: · Shara Bey (28)
Push The Limit (3)
· R7-T1 (3)
· Bodhi Rook (1)
X-Wing: · Biggs Darklighter (25)
· R4-D6 (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

I've toyed around with Ezra, RecSpec, and Kyle for Norra, and they're all good. Kyle is probably the better call defensively, but I like the crit potential, and it's paid off several times.

If you want to be more aggressive, swap Biggs for Jess with R2D6 and Trick Shot, or even A Score To Settle (hilariously good against Nym). This arguably works better with Shara's newfound boost potential, as Jess can use that native boost to even better effect with Shara keeping up.

Intensity and Rey crew also isn't a bad call for Shara in this set up, if you're ok with slow rolling a couple of turns at the start to bank a few tokens. Especially with Biggs over Jess, as you'll have a couple of chances to bank them on the fly.

Getting a second ARC is low on my priority, but with Riz Ahmed riding shotgun? Bodhi Rook seems good on Shara Bey. She still has to be within Range 1-2 of her ally, but that'd expand things to kinda range 4-5 from the target. Shara seems much better in practice than Norra for R7-T1.

You could totally rock Shara beside some T70s like this. Ditch Norra for Poe with R2D2, VI, AT, and title, for example. Poe doesn't get his usual action economy from LW or PTL, but rather from Shara directly. You could even go hog wild with target locks altogether and run Shara with VI/R7T1/Weapons Engineer, Jess with M9G8/IA, and Poe with Adaptability/R2D2/AT. In some ways it's more limited in it's action economy, but hooooo boy that's a lot of target locks for Poe to abuse, and Jess to shut down folks with.